Singer-songwriter and activist Michael Martin Murphey will be performing a benefit concert at Hamley’s on April 9 for a friend stricken with Lyme disease, as well as previewing his seventh volume of cowboy songs, “High Stakes.” Murphy was generous enough to discuss with me what cowboy songs mean to him and how the songs he performs are an extension of his environmental activism that focuses on restoring rangeland through sustainable ranching practices.

A friend of mine recently gifted me a copy of your 1976 album, “Swans Against the Sun.” It has a varied sound, ranging from the prog-rock synthesizers of the title track, to the jazzy numbers, to country/folk rock styling you are more commonly associated with. Can you talk about how your songwriting has changed since then?

I don’t think my songwriting process has changed. I think my production has changed. I was listening to some of that stuff in recent times. Man, we were really throwing in the kitchen sink! We weren’t about simple back then, we were about complex. When it does work out it’s great, but when it doesn’t … “Swans Against The Sun” is uneven in that sense. As I look back, simple production is what breaks through. I love doing songs with just an acoustic guitar, and using the low end of the instrument.

“High Stakes” is a mixture of cowboy standards and new songs — two of which were co-written with your son and frequent collaborator Ryan. What goes into making a good cowboy song?

The same things that go into any good song: something that draws the listener in, a good story. You’re there for the audience, not for yourself. You only master your craft song by song. You don’t say, “I’m a master now and anything I write is masterful!” You have to apply to mastery anytime you write a song, anytime you write anything.

In a cowboy song, you sing about the western life and are reaching culture in a way that is compelling and interesting. “High Stakes” is about taking risks and moving forward. My favorite line in that song — one that Ryan wrote — is, “heaven is so close and hell is there for those who wait around.” Ranchers and ranching culture can not afford to sit back and wait around. We have a job to do. We have stewardship over the land. We don’t want a desert. The next album, “Cowboy Songs: Volume 8,” addresses that though it’s not necessary coming out next year.

There are songs on this album that I’ve had for years that I didn’t release. I’m old-fashioned in the way I think about albums. I like a suite of songs that are in the same spirit and interrelate. In a download world where things happen one at a time, the album is a distinctly different kind of unit, a different form of expression than a single song. I love albums that are based around cowboys.

Cowboy songs tend to celebrate and romanticize the frontier mindset — the untamed land as a reflection of an untamed spirit — something that seems to be gradually disappearing as land is continually disappearing to development and more people move to urban areas. Has the cowboy song changed in response to these societal shifts?

Absolutely! Oregon ought to know about that! Without getting too political, as the world shifts to cities, since we live in a democracy the cities have the power. You have to have a Department of the Interior. If that department is mostly influenced by urban centers, it’s not going to know what sort of work there is to be done on the ground. I don’t think that that’s intentional. The main reason we have the Department of the Interior is to protect natural resources. We have an urban population and when they think of a national forest they think of a camping trip or staying in a cabin. They elect people who want to manage it for that purpose. If you manage public land just for tourism you’re going to make a lot of mistakes.

We’ve removed a lot of the grazing animals from public areas but we want to see wild animals out there. We already killed all the buffalo. We can’t do it by breeding buffalo, it would take 100 years! We need to have managed wilderness. You can call a place a wilderness area but that area is going to deteriorate without proper management.

Those are issues specific to the cowboy that can only be solved by understanding western and ranching culture. These songs help provide that background.

The official unveiling of “High Stakes” will take place in Dallas at Earth Day Texas. What does Earth Day mean to you?

What it should mean to everybody: We have this planet and whether you think about it scientifically or not we have a responsibility to make it work for the environment or we have an unhealthy planet. We have thousands of microclimates that add up to one big macroclimate. How we take care of our local microclimate affects the macroclimate. It’s about the health of the planet. Without a healthy planet we have no healthy human begins. Earth Day is an important holiday. I don’t think it should be a government public holiday — those should be few and far between — but we should celebrate the interaction people have with the planet.

Aside from the personal connection with Lyme disease, why does this issue resonate with you?

It is the single biggest threat to the health of the outdoors people of the American West. It’s been swept under the rug. Oregon has a huge problem. Refer yourself to the Oregon Lyme Disease Network. Lyme is really everywhere and we need a greater awareness of it.

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J.D. Kindle is a Pendleton musician and executive director of the Oregon East Symphony. Contact him at jamesdeankindle@gmail.com